Category: Frequently Asked Questions

This is one of the most frequently asked questions in the gym, and like most questions the answer here cannot be reduced to a simple YES or NO. To go smoothly into this otherwise very long and voluminous subject, we must first say that, of course, cardio workouts have a place in your workout routine. They have positive contribution to the achievement of desired physics.

Indeed, during a cardio session your body is burning a high percentage of body fat, but that does not mean that you will achieve more refined physics by practicing more of this activity at the expense of less weight training.
The reason for this lies in your resting metabolic rate. The first 1-2 hours after a steady pace cardio session, it works faster. In workouts with more weights that period is increased to 1-2 days after the end of the session. Why is that? To answer this question, we need to look at what happens to your body and how it responses after those two difrent types of workouts.

By doing multy-joint exercises with free weights and barbells you apply higher physical stress on the muscles of the whole body, resulting in micro-damage to muscle tissue. In steady pace cardio performance, on the other hand, are involved much less muscle groups and the intensity of the load on them is many times lower, and hence the damage is less.

In the hours and days after the workout, the body must repair the damaged muscle tissue. Throughout this recovery process, your metabolism works intensively to succeed with “repairs”. Simple calculations show that the longer and harder it had to work, the more calories you will burn at resting period.

Another fact that people aiming to lose weight often overlook is that weight training increases the volume of lean muscle mass, which also contributes to the speeding up of metabolism. Excessively long cardio workouts, however, can lead to loss of lean muscle mass and lower metabolic rate. The slower it becomes, the more difficult it is to reduce body fat. Moreover, lower down your resting metabolic rate can lead to storing body fat easier if you find yourself in a situation of calorie surplus.

For fast and most effective results we at CityFitness Team recommend to combine your weight training workouts with high intensity interval type of cardio and/ or sprints. We guarantee that a 10-15 minute interval cardio, rotaiting between fast and slow pace at the end of your workout, is much more effective for fat loss than a 40-50 minute steady pace cardio session.

Last few weeks are passing in expectation of the upcoming holidays. Good mood and excitement accompany our everyday life more and more. Do you have the desire for sports, but your focus is slightly shifted to a different direction? Does your well working nutritional strategies starting to slip away? Do not worry! The problem is not in you! Taking in mind that, right now is the holiday season, the risk of getting out of the good shape right now is fully understood. The purpose of this article is to help you stay fit and healthy during the holidays and in connection with this, we will give you some tips that can help keeping the balance in between what is pleasant and that what is useful for your body.

Tip 1: You can afford to step out of your usual diet plan, but do not overdo it. During the holidays the desire for the „forbidden fruit” is absolutely understandable. Your diet plans can go little off track, but of course it is good in general to stick to your normal nutritional habits. To make sure that this is done in the best way, you can seek the advice of the person who is monitoring your nutritional strategy.

Tip2: Reduce the workouts with weights. Do you feel that, the desire for sport is greatly decreasing, but you have to be stronger then this? Are you telling friends, that you are proud of yourself how despite your reduced motivation you still workout tirelessly at the gym? The easiest way to start hating gym sessions is to keep doing something against your inner voice. It would be better to reduce the intensity of training with weights and increase the cardio training sessions. On the one hand this change in your workout routine is a welcomed diversity for your body and on the other hand you maintained the “flame” and the chances for you to perform your own personal “HARA-KIRI” in sports are minimized.

Tip 3: Find а workout partner. One is good, two is better says an old saying. Each time when we workout with someone, this makes things different both in terms of motivation and mutual help in what we do together. In this way, the responsibility drives us to go on forward, because no one would want to ruin his own reputation, especially in front of a friend.

Tip 4: The early bird catches the worm.  At first glance this does not look very important, but if we can workout at mornings this can be beneficial. Around holiday there is a lot of non working days. Waking up early in a day off, a lot of us don’t have what to do. Beginning the day with coffee in one hand and the phone in the other is the surest way to accumulate laziness that will put stop on us for the rest of the day. “Another 10 more minutes and I will go … ” Is that sounds familiar to you? Open your eyes, have breakfast and head straight towards the gym, before the festive laziness catches up with you! It’s easier than it looks!

Tip 5: Be careful with alcohol consummation. One of the “killers” of motivation and physical activity is exactly alcohol. There is hardly to believe that, there is someone who would be happy to go and put much efforts in his workout at the gym , especially when he already have overload his head with alcohol. Alcohol also is high in calories. That doesn’t mean you don’t have to drink. Just do it for pleasure and in moderate quantities.

To sum up, we can say that the principles described above can be applied not only during the holidays, but whenever you feel decreasing in your motivation for exercising.

CityFitness ™

Each one of us at one point falls into that period that puts limits to оur progress in the workouts and in the building of muscle mass. Despite our efforts, we feel that something it’s not quite right and things are not going the way we want them to go. In this article we are going to pay attention to one of the popular topics related to training with weights – the feeling that we are reaching the point where workouts are at a standstill and we are not progressing at them, as a result of that the process of building muscle mass Is slowed down. To continue further, so we can look into the details of this occurrence it is good first to specify what exactly means – workout plateau

Plateau in the workout routine is a situation which may occur with everybody no matter how advance they are in their training level. Characteristic of this period are the feeling of reduced motivation and lack of result for a given time period. Depending on various factors the plateau may be long-term or short-term. The reasons for occurrence of this “event” can be different, the most common among them are: following same workout plan for long period of time, not enough physical/mental recovery, meal plan errors.

In order not to fall in this unpleasant to every gym enthusiast situation we need the right approach. For this reason we will look at the three most common causes leading to a standstill in our workouts.

* following same workout plan for long period of time – The workout plan plays major role in the way how the body is going to develop. If we think about it for a little, we can reasonably conclude that adding more variety of different exercises to our workout routine gives more chance of different muscle groups in our body to start to develop, in addition to that, we may say that the body acts on the principle of Gestalt – every muscle, every tendon, every joint is part of the general puzzle. Also here is the place to mention that, a different approach to a given muscle group, by performing different exercises from those we are used to perform, creates a further need for this muscle group to adapt to these new and different loads.

*not enough physical/mental recovery – The recovery as a process takes important place not only in sports, but in the good health of the body. If disturbances are present in the recovery process it is normal to observe decline in the good condition and tonus in general. This will give negative impact in our workouts. The best we can do to get out from that situation is to focus our efforts on the two fundamental “repositories” of restoration and recovery – sleep and nutritional plan.

*meal plan errors – By causation effect we reach to what was said in the above lines about the possible reasons leading to the occurrence of the event of workout plateau – the meal plan errors. The errors can be different, one of the most common among them is the use of foods rich in “empty calories” or so called “junk foods”. Consuming such foods, we intake large quantity of calories, but at the same time we are starving at the cellular level due to the lack of valuable nutrients. This sooner or later reflects on our tonus and motivation. Another common mistake in the meal plan is the incorrect distribution of the macronutrients.

To sum up, we can say that, paying attention to each detail and careful consideration of each step would be the best preventive measure in terms of workout plateau.

 

CityFitness ™

How long does it takes to get in shape ?  How long should I workout a day? Will I become too muscular? What should I eat?

A beginner female asks herself most often those four main questions when she begins working out in the gym. We will try to answer them in this article.

– How long does it takes to get in shape

The answer to this question depends both on the efforts you are willing to make and on your own ideas for how a good-looking body should look like. If we have to be specific , when you combine all necessary factors together the first changes in the physics begin after the first few months

– How long should I workout a day?

There are variety of ideas and theories about how long the perfect workout should last. People often confuse quantity and quality.  In weight training it is important to perform all moves in the exercises with good quality, which means putting maximum accuracy and precision in the performance. The optimal time for a quality workout is up to an hour.

– Will I become too muscular?

The answer to this question is No. This is one of the biggest fears of most of the women which are just started training with weights. There are a number of studies showing that lower level of testosterone in the female body will not allow, even with weight training, significant increase in a muscle mass. The muscular women you see and don’t want to look like have this muscular vision for totally different reasons.

– What should I eat?
In the beginning when you start, even if you don’t change anything in your eating habits you still will achieve some results. However , afterwards in the future you have to pay attention to the proper nutritional strategy. When you go deeper in your new healthy lifestyle, comes the time to be more determined and consistent in your plans to achieve the desired results. A popular nutritional strategy that works flawlessly is to reduce the tree biggest „pests” of your body: alcohol, sugar and dough.

CityFitness ™

On 17.11.2015 our gym opens his doors for the first time. It’s almost 3 years since then and we at CityFitness Team  decide there is no  better time than now to present to you our official web page.